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Afghan,
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)
- Afghan election officials agreed
yesterday to create an independent com-
mission to probe opposition charges of
fraud in this nation's first-ever presi-
dential poll, while ballot-boxes stuffed
with the aspirations of the people of this
war-ravaged land started to stack up in
counting centers.
International officials met privately
in an effort to end a boycott of the bal-
lot by opponents of U.S.-backed interim
President Hamid Karzai, a heavy favor-
ite to win.
Tallying of the votes had initially
been expected to start yesterday, but
with ballot boxes coming in from some
remote areas on mules, U.N. officials
said the process wouldn't start for
three to four days. Final results are not
expected until about Oct. 30.
A day after 15 challengers announced
they would boycott the election's out-
come, two backed off, saying they
wanted a commission to rule whether
the voting was fair and indicating they
would accept its decision.
A few hours later, their demand
appeared to have been met.
"There is going to be an independent
commission made to investigate it,"
electoral director Farooq Wardak said.
"There could be mistakes; we are just
human beings. My colleagues might
have made a mistake."
There was no immediate reaction
from the challengers, but a senior West-
ern official said many of the 15 had
decided to back down and support the
investigative team, which would consist
of about three foreign election experts.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
and other officials spent much of yester-
day meeting with the candidates.

voting f
In Washington, U.S. national securi-
ty adviser Condoleezza Rice predicted
that "this election is going to be judged
legitimate."
"I'm just certain of it," she said.
The opposition complaint is focused
on allegations that the supposedly indel-
ible ink used to mark voters' thumbs in
some polling stations could be rubbed
off, allowing some people to vote more
than once.
International election observers said
the complaint did not justify calling for
the vote to be nullified. The U.S. Inter-
national Republican Institute accused
the challengers of making up excuses
for why they were likely to lose.
Electoral officials said turnout
looked extremely high - a victory in
itself in a nation with no experience at
direct elections.
Karzai said he was "very disappoint-
ed" with his challengers' complaint.
"They should have respected the vote
of the people," he said.
Yesterday, ballots were carried to
eight centers around the country, where
they were readied for counting.
In Mazar-e-Sharif, election officials
said they had not received ballots that
were supposed to be flowing in from
five northern provinces. They said it
could take until tomorrow or Wednes-
day for ballots to arrive from remote
villages.
Widespread attacks threatened by the
Taliban to disrupt the vote never mate-
rialized. The rebels managed a smat-
tering of deadly assaults around the
country, but they took the biggest hit,
losing 25 men in a clash with U.S. and
Afghan forces in the south.
Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S.
commander in Afghanistan, told The

aud investigated
F - Ammom- - --

NEWS IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON
Lawmakers to pass corporate tax cuts

4

The Senate late yesterday resolved a dispute delaying passage of a sweeping
corporate tax bill and two spending bills for disaster relief and homeland security.
clearing the way for senators to adjourn today to hit the campaign trail.
The agreement removed parliamentary roadblocks thrown up by Sen. Mary
Landrieu (D-La.) to express her unhappiness that the tax measure did not include
pay support for members of the Reserves and National Guard, and by Sen. Tom
Harkin, who was blocking passage of two spending bills.
The agreement, announced by Majority Leader Bill Frist, will allow the Senate
to vote today on a bill that will provide $136 billion in new tax breaks for busi-
nesses and other groups and $10.1 billion separately to buy out tobacco farmers'
government quotas.
It will also allow votes on a bill helping hurricane victims and farmers suTfer-
ing from drought, flood and other emergencies and a bill to fund the homeland
security.

AP PHOTO
An Afghan election staff prepares to count ballots at a U.N office at Herat
airport yesterday, a day after Afghanistan's first direct presidential election.

Landrieu was seeking to get approval for another bill that would give employers
a tax credit if they made up the pay their employees lose when they are called to
active duty in the Reserves or National Guard.
Landrieu's proposal would provide a 50 percent tax credit to employers for'up
to $30,000 in salary payments a year and was estimated to have a $2.5 billion cost
over 10 years.
WASHINGTON
Voting system could cause election glitch
Call it the law of unintended consequences.
A new national backup system meant to ensure that millions of eligible voters
are not mistakenly turned away from the polls Nov. 2, as happened in 2000, could
wind up causing Election Day problems as infamous as Florida's hanging chads.
For the first time, Congress is requiring all states to offer a backup ballot to any
voter whose name does not appear on the rolls when the voter comes to the polling
place on Nov. 2. If the voter is later found eligible, the vote counts.
Like Florida's punch cards, provisional ballots are pieces of paper that must
be evaluated individually and counted by hand. The task is time-consuming, and
most states have short deadlines to get the job done, said Doug Lewis, director of
the Election Center, a nonpartisan research and training organization for statend
local election administrators.
Post-election suits could resemble the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore case that settled
the 2000 election. The justices said it was unfair for Florida counties to apply different
standards during punch card recounts, and there was not time to fix the problem.

I

Associated Press the election could
sound the rebels' death knell.
"The Taliban basically didn't show.
They had very limited attacks," he
said. "Yesterday was a huge defeat for
the Taliban."
He predicted Taliban leaders would
"eventually look for ways to reconcile
with the government that comes in."

Even though Western officials gave
the thumbs up to the decision, a suc-
cessful democracy needs an oppo-
sition that accepts election results.
Karzai's ability to unite the nation,
fight warlords and crush the Taliban's
insurgency might be undermimed if
his opponents refuse to recognize the
vote's legitimacy.

Car bombs kill
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Car bombers struck twice in
rapid succession in the capital yesterday, killing at least 11
people including an American soldier, as Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld warned that violence may increase before
the January election.
Iraq's most feared terror group - Tawhid and Jihad -
claimed responsibility for the near-simultaneous car bomb-
ings, one near an east Baghdad police academy and the other
outside an east Baghdad market as an American military
convoy was passing by.
At least 16 people were wounded.
An American soldier was fatally injured in the convoy
attack, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. One Iraqi was wounded
in that attack. The Kindi Hospital said it received 10 bod-
ies from the police academy blast, and police said 15 others
were injured there.
The dead at Kindi hospital included three police academy
istudents and a female officer.
In a statement posted on the Web, Tawhid and Jihad, led
by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the car
bombings were carried out by its military wing and were
'martyrdom" operations, meaning suicide attacks.
Improvised bombs - some left by the side of the road,
others rigged in vehicles - have become insurgents' weap-
on of choice in turbulent Iraq and have accounted for about

11 in Baghdad
half the American battle deaths in recent months. U.S. offi-
cials are struggling to build up Iraq's own security to cope
with the threat.
Al-Zarqawi's group also warned it would continue "to
slaughter infidels" until the Americans and their Iraqi allies
release all women detained in Iraq. The warning was part
of a message contained in a videotape posted yesterday on
the Web depicting the brutal decapitation of British hostage
Kenneth Bigley.
Bigley, whose death was announced by his family Friday,
was shown pleading for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to
save his life moments before assailants severed his head with
a knife. His body has not been found.
"Here I am again, Mr. Blair, very, very close to the end of
my life," Bigley said in a calm voice. "You do not appear to
have done anything at all to help me."
One of the hooded men then spoke, saying the British gov-
ernment "pretended to care'about its people" but "they are
lying." He accused the British of lying when Foreign Sec-
retary Jack Straw said the government did not know how to
contact Tawhid and Jihad.
"Britain is not serious," the speaker said. "So this mali-
cious Britons has nothing except the sword."
The speaker then drew a knife and cut off Bigley's head
while three others held him down.

PHONES
Continued from page 1A
Another charity is Secure the Call,
which teamed up this month with
Albertsons, one of the world's larg-
est food and drug retailers, to collect
and donate phones.
"We anticipate a successful drive
while creating awareness of domestic
violence," Secure the Call President
Volante Williams said in a written
statement. "In addition to providing
a needed service to those without
a cell phone, Secure the Call's pro-
gram keeps phones out of the local
landfills."
Many of the programs serve dual
purposes. Some also raise money for
various charities by accepting phones
and then selling them in addition to
redistributing phones for emergency
calls. Others recycle phones to pro-
tect the environment.
A new website, recyclewireless
phones.com, can help those inter-
ested to find a place to donate a
phone.

NEW YORK
Researchers: U.S. must attract vaccine makers
If the United States wants to avoid future shortages of flu vaccine it must take
steps to draw drug companies back into the business of making the inoculations,
flu experts say.
In a bad year, the stakes could be higher than just saving people from fever,
headaches and a runny nose.
"What if you had 20 or 30 percent of your population not able to go to work orto
school? It would affect the economy. It would affect, in a sense, our security," said
Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic, who sits on a federal vaccine advisory board.;
Health officials warned of shortages Tuesday after one of the two companies
that supply most of the nation's flu inoculations said it couldn't provide any. Brit-
ish authorities had suspended the license of Chiron Corp. because of problems
at its vaccine plant in Liverpool. That chopped the nation's supply of flu vaccine
in half.

WASHINGTON

.
f
k

II I ! I

Pollen Revolution
Akira Kasai
WEDNESDAY, OCTO
Power Center
5'Imm I_

0
Co
04 0 r3
CO
$10 Rush Tickets on sale 9 am -
5 pm the day of the performance
or the Friday before a weekend
event at the UMS Ticket Office,
located in the Michigan League.
50% Rush Tickets on sale begin-
ning 90 minutes before the event
at the performance hall Ticket
Office.

SIGMA KAPPA SORORITY
Bringing Sisterhood To Life

Bush education ads mimic TV news program
The Bush administration has promoted its education law with a video that comes
across as a news story but fails to make clear the reporter involved was paidiwith
taxpayer money.
The government used a similar approach this year in promoting the new Medi-
care law and drew a rebuke from the investigative arm of Congress, which foupd
the videos amounted to propaganda in violation of federal law.
The Education Department also has paid for rankings of newspaper coverage of
the No Child Left Behind law, a centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda.
Points are awarded for stories that say President Bush and the Republican Party are
strong on education, among other factors.
The news ratings also rank individual reporters on how they cover the law, based
on the points system set up by Ketchum, a public relations firm hired by the gov-
ernment.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
www.michigandaily.com
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ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-
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NEWS Tomislav Ladika, Managing Editor
763-2459, news@michigandally.com
EDITORS: Alison Go, Carmen Johnson, Andrew Kaplan, Emily Kraack
STAFF Farayha Arrine. Melssa Benton, Adrian Chen, Mary DeYoe, Ashley Dinges, Adhiraj Dutt, Victoria Edwards, Chiloe Foster, Donn M. Fresard,
Rosie Goldensorn, Michael Gurovitsch, Tina Hildreth. Aymar Jean, Anne Jong. Genevieve Lampinen, Melton Lee, Michael Kan, Justin Miller, Naia
Moreira, Jameel Naqvi. Kristin Ostby. Koustubh Patwardhan, Kristin Przybylski, Mona Rafee, Leslie Rott. Ekjyot Saini. Karl Stampfl, Lucille Vaughan
OPINION Jason Z. Pesick, Editor
763-0379, opinion@mlchigandally.com
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Daniel Adams, Jennifer Misthal, Suhael Momin, Sam Singer
STAFF: Katherine Cantor, Jasmine Clair. Sara Eber, Daniel Faichney. Jared Goldberg, Emily Hanan, Dan Skowronski, Chris Zbrozek
CARTOONISTS: Sam Butler. Colin Daly
COLUMNISTS:Sravya Chrumamiha. JasmineClair.Steve cotner, Zachary Denfeld.Joel Hoard,
SowmyaKrshnamurthyD.C. Lee. Elliott Mallen, Zac PeskowitzJordan Schrader
SPORTS Gennaro Filce, Managing Editor

we would like

to welcome our new Yledje class to the house!

BER 13, 8 PM

W,

'

One of Japan's most highly acclaimed performers of
butoh dance, Akira Kasai brings his new solo perfor-
mance, Pollen Revolution, to Ann Arbor. On the outer
boundaries of un-self consciousness, change is the
only constant in this piece as butoh meets and be-

RESEARCH
STUDY /
Doctors in the area are conducting
a research study to test the safety
and effectiveness of an investigational
medication in the treatment of asthma.
You may be eligible for the study if:
* You are at least 18 years old
* You are generally healthy with the diagnosis of I
persistent asthma
* You can manage your asthma symptoms safely
with regular use of albuterol onlyl
* You have not been a smoker within the past year